


contact hitter

by moreids



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-20
Updated: 2017-03-20
Packaged: 2018-10-08 12:44:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 986
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10386921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moreids/pseuds/moreids
Summary: In baseball, a contact hitter is a hitter who does not strike out often. In the case of Morgan and Reid, Morgan is a contact hitter.





	

Morgan’s talking about the Cubs when Reid realizes he’s in love with him.

He’s out of his element here, because Morgan knows baseball statistics the way he knows the traffic patterns of every major American city. Reid hates that he didn't take the time to read a sports almanac, because this means he can’t jump in with a fact at any time. This means that Reid isn’t the one talking.

When Reid isn’t talking he’s observing, and that’s when he's convinced having an eidetic memory is nothing but a curse. People are always forgetting something and Reid wishes he had that luxury.

He’s going to remember how Morgan is talking with that animated look in his eyes and the way his fingers still tap against his leg nervously whenever he says Chicago. The soft, wistful smile on Morgan’s face when he talks about visiting his sisters will stay behind his eyes every time he blinks for days.

Morgan laughs when Rossi tosses out a comment about the Yankees and while it’s easier for him to remember visual over auditory it’s Morgan, so of course he's going to remember the sound of it.

He remembers everything about Morgan and it’s all stored away methodically in his mind, filed away in neat little boxes he’s too scared to touch and terrified to reopen. Reid’s afraid that if he opens these memories he’ll open his mouth next and he won’t be able to stop the words from tumbling out faster than any percentage has.

The memories of Morgan are carefully catalogued, while the feelings associated with him are pushed to the back of the filing cabinet, redacted out in black marker, and shredded for good measure.

If Reid had been talking he wouldn’t have been thinking about this, and his brain wouldn’t have started replaying every single one of Morgan’s smiles like a movie. Each one that was directed at him stands out even more vividly, like technicolor.

He’s struck by the thought that he wants to remember every single one of Morgan’s smiles. And that’ll take forever, won't it? He wants to be around Morgan forever. A future without Morgan in it isn’t even something Reid has ever considered.

All Morgan did was smile down at his coffee cup, the same way he’s done a thousand times, for Reid to realize that he’s in love with him. It isn’t even the most dazzling smile Morgan's ever given but Reid’s filing system is overloading, shutting down, and suddenly his feelings are right there in the front of his mind.

They’re in the middle of the bullpen and Reid’s dizzy with the realization that he’s in love with his best friend and he’s hearing but not listening to anything being said to him.

“Reid?” Morgan’s hand is on his shoulder and his thumb burns where it meets Reid's collarbone.

“Hm?” He doesn't think he can manage a full sentence.

“The extra ticket to the Cubs game. You in? I can explain anything you don't know.”

Reid nods, maybe a little too enthusiastically. The thought of getting to watch Morgan talk for an entire night makes Reid’s pulse quicken faster than it takes to blink.

Morgan, unsurprisingly, had figured out he was in love with Reid ages before Reid did. He was talking about the practical application of quantum mechanics when it suddenly hit Morgan.

They were in the jet and Morgan always has to remind himself it’s the altitude and not Reid making his stomach flip over.

He’s not sure what part of the conversation had brought on the tangent, but he usually never does. He’d just been nodding along and focusing on Reid’s excited tone more than anything else. Morgan’s certainly smart, but not eidetic memory genius smart, which Reid never fails to remind him of. He’s probably used more SAT vocabulary words in one breath than Morgan thought was humanly possible.

It’s when he paused for breath that the realization hit him like a punch. Reid had this excited, passionate look in his eyes, and it just clicks, because that’s the same way Reid looks when he talks about Morgan. His eyes shine in that same way when he looks at Morgan, as if he were a mathematical equation Reid couldn't quite solve.

Every time Reid talks Morgan can't focus and his heart aches because he wants Reid to solve the problem, he wants Reid to see right through him. For being a genius, Reid is the most oblivious person Morgan's ever met.

The rest of the team sees it far before they do themselves. It's an unspoken fact in the BAU; Morgan and Reid are in love. Morgan and Reid are in love, and blindly so, because they’d rather dance around the fact than admit it.

They all find out in small, insignificant ways, and no one says anything about it. Hotch sees it in how gentle Morgan is with Reid after Tobias Hankel. Rossi figures it out when Reid lets Morgan beat him in chess, JJ in the way Reid talks to Henry about his Uncle Morgan. Emily realizes at JJ’s wedding when Morgan, appropriately drunk first, spends more time dancing with Reid than with her.

Garcia is the last to know. The team didn't let her in on the secret because if they had, it wouldn't have stayed secret for long.

She finds out the day after the Cubs game, along with everyone else, officially. Morgan was in the middle of telling Reid about the Ex Cubs Factor when the kiss cam was directed at them, and Morgan had never felt luckier in his life. Reid was aware there were kiss cams in stadiums but it was Morgan who told him they’d get kicked out if they didn't do it.

It takes Garcia no more than ten seconds to hack her way into the footage and play it on every single monitor in the building.

**Author's Note:**

> hi i wrote this in math class instead of paying attention so its rly short and i know nothing about baseball and i had to google baseball terms for the title lmao anyway have a good day/night i hope this is ok !


End file.
